The Name Game
by boidwriter
Summary: Short one shot of Detty fluff that takes place well into the future.  Picking a baby's name can have its challenges.


"What about Angela? Ooooh... or Angelina, that's pretty," Betty commented as she flipped through the small paperback book she held up in front of her and stopped at the A's.

They were settling in for the night when Betty had pulled out the book on baby names and suggested they find a girl's name. So now they were sitting in bed leaning back on their pillows.

"Why are we doing this?" Daniel grumbled; this wasn't exactly what he had in mind when he had suggested they go to bed early about half an hour ago.

Betty looked down at her swollen abdomen and answered as if it was obvious. "Uh, because we need a girl's name."

"We've been through this already, it's not a girl," Daniel insisted.

"Daniel come on, be serious," she pleaded.

"I am serious. I told you Betty, the Meade men don't make little girls, only boys. We have too much testosterone or something."

"I don't think it works that way, Rambo," Betty rolled her eyes, amused.

"Well, whatever way it works, that's how it is. I have four cousins from my Dad's two _brothers_– all male. Alexis never stood a chance - she was destined to have a penis."

She cringed a little. "Ok, do we have to talk about your sister's penis?"

"My point is, this little Meade is a boy." He put his hand on Betty's stomach and rubbed gently.

Betty grunted in frustration. "Ugh! Could you just humour me a little? Maybe, just maybe you're wrong, and I don't want my little girl to have a boy's name."

"Fine," Daniel conceded. "But not Angelina."

"Why not?" She sounded slightly disappointed.

"You want Bradley for a boy's name because I don't want Bradford," Daniel reminded her of their compromise.

"Yeah, so?" Betty didn't get it.

"Really Betty - Bradley, Angelina?" Daniel looked at her like it was obvious, but she still didn't get it. "Brangelina," Daniel finally said.

"Oh." Betty scrunched her nose. "I never thought of that. But it's not like we're having twins. It would be one or the other."

"Still…" Daniel shook his head. "Besides, I slept with Angelina, remember?"

Naming their baby after an ex-whatever, felt wrong, even if it hadn't meant anything; he wanted to avoid that.

Betty's mouth dropped open and she looked like he'd just told her Wilhelmina ate a double cheeseburger with fries for lunch. "Shut up! You slept with Angelina Jolie? Seriously?"

"No, I'm making it up to impress you," Daniel said sarcastically. "I figure if I impress you enough maybe I can get you into bed. What's with the surprise? You knew that, we've discussed this before."

He was sure he remembered some kind of embarrassing conversation about this in front of her family. Or wait…maybe it was when he first met her family and she wasn't even there.

"Uh…NO. I think I would remember something like that," she insisted. "Ok, not Angelina. But seriously, if we have to eliminate the names of all the women you've ever slept with, we're going to run into problems."

"Funny," Daniel said sarcastically.

"I'm not kidding," Betty said. "I take some comfort from the fact you don't remember most of their names. There are fewer to eliminate that way."

"A regular Conan O'Brien, you are," he responded, slightly offended. He remembered their names. He couldn't always put a face with the name, or a name to the face. Ok, so maybe arguing that wouldn't help his case any.

"Again, not really kidding," Betty replied with a straight face, stopping at a page in the book and skimming. "What about Abigail or Abby?"

Daniel shook his head, scrunching his face apologetically.

"What's wrong with Abby? Don't tell me, let me guess, you slept with an Abigail." Betty tilted her head when she looked at him.

He didn't answer.

"Well?" she asked.

"You told me not to tell you," he reminded her sheepishly.

Betty shook her head, sighed and flipped over some pages.

"How about Cassandra?" Betty was hopeful but Daniel shook his head with the same expression.

She flipped again and read for a minute.

"Hailey?" she asked cautiously.

He paused for a brief second to think. A little hope flickered and it was just as quickly extinguished by a brief college memory. He regretfully shook his head again, feeling like he was digging himself deeper into a hole with every name she suggested.

"Rebecca?" She was starting to sound frustrated and he didn't even need to answer that one, she read his expression.

Unbelievable. How was it even possible that she kept randomly picking names of women he'd slept with? He knew there were a lot but come on…

"Tamara?" Betty questioned almost through clenched teeth.

This activity was going nowhere fast and he needed to put a stop to it before he was sleeping in the guest room.

"As fun as this little game is, can we stop playing now?" he asked, pulling the book away from her gently, hoping he could avoid answering the last one.

Betty – not at all fooled - sighed in exasperation. "_Now_ you remember all their names? The morning after you slept with them your mind was blank, but now, when we're trying to pick a name for our baby, you can remember them all. Picking a name this way is impossible."

She crossed her arms over her chest, defeated and slightly sulky.

"Hey, in my defense, _you_ were the one who said I couldn't remember their names, not me. And besides, I wasn't really thinking I was eliminating possible names of my future daughter when I was sleeping with them," he argued as he put the book down on the nightstand on his side.

Betty looked annoyed. "That's supposed to make me feel better?"

"I didn't realize you were feeling badly. Listen Betty, I was a dog - I admit it. But you know that, you were there." He didn't understand why this was bothering her all of a sudden.

"You're right," she sighed. "I just didn't realize it was going to impact what to name our child one day.

He took her hand. "It's not because our baby is a boy," Daniel grinned.

"Ok smart alec, but what if it's not?"

He thought for a second and then he made a suggestion.

"Let me take the book for a couple of days and I'll find some names that don't…uh…remind me of anyone. I'll make a short list of the ones I like and you can see if you think any of them are suitable. Does that sound like a plan?"

She nodded looking a little more hopeful and then she quipped with a smirk, "You might need to get a bigger book."

He chuckled; at least it seemed like she was feeling better.

Then he said thoughtfully, "I think I know what will be at the top of the list anyway. The obvious name you seem to be forgetting."

Betty looked puzzled.

"Rosa," Daniel elaborated.

"Oh." Betty's eyes misted a little and a small smile crossed her lips before she added softly "I didn't forget. I was thinking that might make a really nice middle name."

Daniel nodded. "A beautiful middle name," he agreed, caressing her cheek with his thumb. He paused for a second. "But not for my son." He bent down and spoke to Betty's swollen abdomen. "Don't worry little guy, I won't let your Mom name you Rosa."

Betty rolled her eyes again.

"In the meantime, since we're done with the baby naming for tonight…" He leaned over and kissed her neck, placing his hand on her thigh.

"Seriously?" she asked him with astonishment.

He pulled back confused. "What?"

"Oh, I don't know, maybe because we just went through a list of your historic sexcapades - and barely scratched the surface - I'm not really in the mood."

He sighed and leaned back against his pillow but he brought her hand up to his lips and kissed it softly. "I love you Betty. I can't change the past or who I was and I'm sorry for that. But if it's any consolation, you were the one who made me want to be a better person. You made me realize that I could be more than just a wealthy philandering playboy."

He put his arm around her and she leaned into him with a small, hesitant smile.

He tilted her chin up so he could look into her eyes and willed her to understand this the way that he felt it. "I swear, all the encounters with all the models, celebrities - and yes, even Angelina Jolie - were completely meaningless compared to what we have together. What we have is amazing, Betty. We have the kind of connection some people spend their entire lives searching for. It's all encompassing, you know? You're beautiful and sexy and I'm crazy about you but there's so much more than that too. You're my best friend, you always make me laugh, and I'm sure you know me better than I know myself most of the time. Nobody has ever made me feel the way you do."

He leaned over and kissed her softly and she responded, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him down further as she leaned back into the pillow.

"Oh, you are good," she whispered with a smirk when he finally broke from the kiss.

"I mean it," he insisted, not wanting her to think he was placating her with empty words.

"I know. That's what makes it so effective," she grinned.

They locked eyes for a minute before she pulled him down and kissed him fiercely again.


End file.
